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Six or seven years ago, Lin Qiuzi was around sixteen, the age of a blossoming young girl. Nevertheless, despite her youth, she was aware of the fierce competition within her family.
In the Lin family, among the five siblings of the previous generation, Lin Qiuzi’s father ranked third. Due to having daughters as descendants, he only inherited two out of the seventeen cloud-pattern brocade weaving techniques. As someone who’d dedicated himself to family affairs from a young age, Lin Quizi’s father naturally felt discontent.
The story about the ancestor of the Lin family and the Weaver Crane Maiden had originally originated within the Lin family, but their relationship wasn’t as deceptive as rumored. It was said that the crane descended to the mortal world, transformed into a beautiful woman, and secretly imparted the art of silk weaving to the Lin family’s ancestors. Once when Lin Quizi’s father was searching for the weaving technique of the Seventeen Grand Brocades in ancient family records, he stumbled upon this account and believed it to be true. He somehow found a way to communicate with the spirits of their ancestors, using which he wanted to summon the spirits of their ancestors to obtain all the cloud-pattern brocade weaving techniques.
This spirit summoning spell required forty-nine days of continuous practice. Lin Quizi’s father had been secretly carrying it out, of course. Then, on the most crucial last day, Lin Qiuzi stumbled upon him. At that time, a bolt of lightning from a clear sky shattered the dark room. She only felt the dazzling light of the lightning before she passed out. The father and daughter duo weren’t directly struck by the lightning and thus their lives were not in danger. However, when their family members heard the sound and arrived to rescue them, they found that Lin Qiuzi’s arms had grown feathers.
The so-called spirit summoning spell had indeed worked.
As for the events that followed, it unfolded just as Lin Qiubai witnessed. Lin Qiuzi, falsely accused, was imprisoned by the family’s head, while her father and mother were forbidden from leaving their own home. The Lin family, aware of the use of dark arts, showed no mercy toward Lin Qiuzi’s family. Knowing what her father had done, Lin Qiuzi pleaded with the family head to be more lenient with her family, but all he showed was a disdainful gaze upon seeing the feathers on her.
The dignified Miss Lin from the Lin family had actually turned into a demon! What would happen if word spread about this? As the head of the Lin family thought about the potential consequences, fury churned in his gut like a tempestuous sea. In a fit of righteous wrath, he stepped forward and viciously plucked the feathers from Lin Qiuzi’s arm. Surprisingly, once detached, those white feathers transformed into silk threads with rich and beautiful luster and color. When meting out the punishment, the Lin family head had been driven by a sense of justice, but after witnessing this scene, greed and desire surged within him like tides. He realized that the spirit-summoning spell was indeed effective, and these feathers were the original material for the initial Seventeen Grand Brocades. Later generations were increasingly unable to make the Seventeen Grand Brocades simply because humans cannot produce this kind of material despite all their ingenuity. Even with the correct weaving technique, without the original material, the resulting brocade would lack the brilliance of the original brocade. After all, any imitation material, no matter how similar, would remain just an imitation.
Lin Qiuzi’s tragedy truly began at the moment her feathers transformed into silk threads.
“Later, I found out that the manufacturing technique for the Seventeen Grand Brocades wasn’t actually lost at all; it was just that they couldn’t be made anymore due to lack of raw materials.” After Lin Qiuzi explained the whole story, the bitterness in her heart seemed to lessen, as if someone shared her burden.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Recalling the subtle, indescribable difference he’d noticed between the original six of the Seventeen Grand Brocades and the new ones created by Lin Qiuzi, Huang Yuliang concluded that it was likely due to the materials used. The textures were very similar, but the use of Lin Qiuzi’s feathers added a unique brilliance.
“Ktlr ues lr gfjiis vjwc vfrqlmjyif.” Ol Tjc, eqbc tfjglcu atf ktbif rabgs, mbeiv bcis offi rbggs obg Olc Hlehl. Pa kjr pera j ragbxf bo yjv iemx obg tfg.
Lejcu Teiljcu ibbxfv ja Olc Hlehl. Po ktja atlr ulgi pera rjlv kjr agef, atf ktbif atlcu kbeiv yf gfjiis agbeyifrbwf.
Lin Qiuzi’s feathers confirmed the union of the Lin family ancestors and the Weaver Crane Maiden. However, the absence of any signs of half-demon descendants over generations indicated that at some point, members of the Lin family had also mixed with some type of half-demon. This led to the extinction of the demon lineage, and subsequent generations became fully human, which was similar to Huang Yuliang’s case. If the Lin family were human, it’d be impossible to complete the atavism spell without deliberate cultivation. Even if it was completed, the probability of returning the fully human Lin Qiuzi to the state of a half-demon was very slim, and what was even more suspicious was that the effect of the spell only manifested on her.
Again, the chance of the cunning and suspicious Huang Yuliang believing in this series of coincidences was practically zero.
Silence fell in the room for a moment. In Lin Qiuzi’s case, if she couldn’t control the half-demon’s source power to hide her feathers, there was no other way to hide it.
Huang Yuliang’s phone rang, and seeing the call was from Lin Qiubai, he knew that things were turning upside down in the Lin family. As expected, the elders of the Lin family had convened an emergency meeting. Lin Qiubai didn’t know the specific details, but when he followed his father to his uncle’s house, he witnessed all security personnel being scolded in the courtyard. So, he became certain that something had happened.
Huang Yuliang didn’t explicitly tell Lin Qiubai that Li Yan had already rescued his cousin. He only advised him not to take any action tonight and asked him to just eat and sleep. However, he also knew that this kid understood the situation. It was a certainty that Lin Qiuzi could no longer stay in Nanjing, and Huang Yuliang didn’t know how to deal with her. Help had to be called.
Over an hour later, Mother Huang and Jiang Sheng arrived almost one after another. Mother Huang, who was usually easy going, wore a solemn expression from the moment she entered the room. After examining Lin Qiuzi’s feathers, she sighed.
“There’s no way. These feathers can’t be put away.”
“It’s a backlash, isn’t it?” Huang Yuliang also sighed. “What a tragedy.”
Mother Huang nodded, touched Lin Qiuzi’s head, and said, “Girl, you… probably have to live like this for the rest of your life.”
Lin Qiuzi laughed a bitter laugh. “Though it’s my cousin who’d asked you, thank you for being willing to rescue me. However, I truly have nowhere to go. It’s better if you take me back… I don’t want him to know I’ve turned into this.” Lin Qiuzi smiled faintly. “Anyway…” She thought about mentioning that she didn’t plan to live for long. Her parents were gone, and she’d become something neither human nor demon. She’d had enough of this kind of life. However, she didn’t want to discuss it with the people in front of her. Talking about it felt like waiting for others to persuade her otherwise.
As they were talking, the sound of the door opening from the outer room caught their attention—it was the woman from the Li Family Village returning. Even when she saw such a large group of people inside her room upon returning home, she wasn’t surprised at all. After a brief greeting, she immediately pulled Li Yan aside to speak.
“I just followed the path you took to the Lin family’s place out west. They’ve already sent people around, asking questions. And while it’s quiet here now, they’ll eventually search this area. After all, you’d carried the girl all the way here, which isn’t exactly low-key.”
Li Yan nodded. “Don’t worry, I’d originally planned to leave as soon as you come back. I’ll never cause you any trouble.”
The woman quickly waved her hand. “Nonsense. How could I be implying you to leave? It’s not safe with so many people around in this neighborhood. Come with me up to the temple on the mountain. It’s closed, and no one will go there.”
Li Yan was very grateful to hear that Jiming Temple was a good hiding place. He quickly discussed it with the people in the house. Because the temple facilities were insufficient to accommodate so many people, it was decided that Li Yan and his relative would take Lin Qiuzi up the mountain. The others would go back to the hotel to plan for the next day. Once the decision was made, they immediately went their separate ways.
Huang Yuliang drove the rented car to take Li Yan and the others to Jiming Temple. After dropping them off, he intended to return to the hotel. However, before Li Yan stepped out of the car, Huang Yuliang asked the man to stay inside for a moment.
“Swallow, there’s something unpleasant I need to tell you.” Huang Yuliang’s gaze drifted toward Lin Qiuzi outside the car. “This girl Lin Qiuzi is pitiable. We’ll help her if we can, but her current situation is nearly unsolvable. So, if we can’t help, don’t force it.”
“I understand what you mean.”
“Also, I don’t know much about that person in your village, and you also don’t know her well enough. Be cautious.”
Li Yan looked at Huang Yuliang seriously. Understanding his concerns, he nodded to reassure him.
“Set my phone number as a speed dial. Call me if any difficult situation crops up.”
“No way.” Li Yan pushed Huang Yuliang’s head. “Don’t treat me like a woman.” With that, he opened the car door. As he was closing the door, Li Yan leaned back in and firmly pinched Huang Yuliang’s face. “Go.”
Jiang Sheng, who was sitting in the back seat, watched the overly affectionate duo. After the car had driven some distance, he whispered, “Brother Huang…are you two…really having an affair?”
“Yeah.” Huang Yuliang couldn’t help but laugh. “So, you don’t have a chance. Don’t even think about it.”
“I don’t like men!” Jiang Sheng remembered that Mother Huang hadn’t joined them in the car. “Brother, where did your mom go?”
“She has something to take care of.” Huang Yuliang paused. “Give your friend Lin Qiubai a call and ask if he can pull up the recent personnel changes of their household servants for the past ten years.”
Jiang Sheng nodded and took out his phone to dial, but Lin Qiubai didn’t answer. “It’s almost eleven; he’s probably asleep.”
“By the way, does Lin Qiubai know that you’re a descendant of the Kuafu clan?”
“Yeah, our families have business dealings, so he knows about it.”
Just as Huang Yuliang was about to continue questioning, Jiang Sheng’s phone rang—it was Lin Qiubai calling back. Jiang Sheng directly put it on speaker.
“Jiang Sheng…” Lin Qiubai’s voice on the phone was trembling, filled with fear. “You… hurry to the company… I found a document in the company, but… but it seems like Uncle found out about me…”
Huang Yuliang also heard what Lin Qiubai said. Ignoring the red light, he made a left turn and immediately turned around.
Poor girl. She didn’t do anything wrong!
Thanks for the chapter.